The invention relates to an optical system consisting of at least two partial systems which are adjustable relative to each other with an adjusting element with at least two sliding surfaces where each partial system possesses at least one sliding surface, over which it abuts a sliding surface of the adjusting element and where each partial system can be fixed in position on the adjusting element.
A process to couple optical components is known from DE-OS No. 34 33 717. Here two partial systems are connected to an adjusting device by a metallic structural connection such as welding or soldering. In this way a relatively large amount of heat is introduced into the optical system. Due to the heat introduction and the material liquidization it can come to undesired depositions. The connection points between the partial systems and the adjusting element must therefore be positioned as far as possible from the optical components so that a compact construction is not possible. A rotation around the optical axis is not possible after the fixing of the optical components on the carrier body. It is time-consuming to apply the required coatings for the known process. In addition, very exactly manufactured adjusting elements and carrier bodies are required to keep the tolerances given.
Due to the non cylinder-symmetrical construction, the stability against temperature influences and mechanical vibrations or similar cannot be compared with stability of cylinder-symmetrical holders for optical components.
In addition, optical systems are known which consist of only two partial systems. They are adjusted by moving the one partial system, consisting, for example, of a lens element system with mount, relative to the other partial system in different adjustment directions until the two partial systems have assumed an optimum position. In this position, the two partial systems are connected to each other in a material locking connection. An adhesion system is preferred to make the material locking connection as in soldering or welding, the optical system is subjected to relatively large amounts of heat which can cause undesired depositions inside the optical system. With an adhesive connection, heat introduction is avoided, but adhesive materials shrink during bonding. To keep any disadjustment of the optical system due to to adhesive shrinking as low as possible, adhesive materials are used which only shrink minimally during bonding, for example by 1 to 2%. However, such adhesives have the disadvantage that bonding takes a relatively long time.
With certain optical systems the required adjustment precision cannot even be obtained with adhesives which only shrink a little:
This is, for example, the case with an optical system which contains a laser diode and a collimating lens element system. The laser diode and the collimating lens element system can be mounted in separate mounts. In many application cases, it is now required to position these two partial systems with reference to three directions with a precision in each case of less than 1 .mu.m. To do this, the two partial systems consisting of laser diode with mount or lens element system with mount are first adjusted by a relative movement of both mounts and then glued. However, after the adjustment process the glue gaps between the mounts are not identical and are large. Even when an adhesive is used which only shrinks minimally, the shrinking process of the adhesive leads to a disadjustment of the optical system. Due to the shrinkage, the required precision limits can therefore not be maintained.